STREAMING REVIEWS: The art of reviving pirates & action heroines – Manila Bulletin

Today, we review a Limited Series that turns a pirate adventure on the high seas into a sitcom; and a film that insists action heroes abs heroines can always be exhumed.

This Flag Means Death (HBO Go) You take the fascination people showed for the action/comedy blend of Pirates of the Caribbean, then turn it into a silly sitcom, and you have This Flag Means Death. The premise is that a gentleman would be so disillusioned by his marriage, staid business, and family that he would harbor dreams of becoming a pirate, and actually set out to do that. With a crew of misfits, hes traversing the high seas, but the real issues hounding him are stuff like he abhors doing anything criminal that would entail taking the life of another, hes squeamish at the sight of blood, and insists on traveling with a full library and wardrobe of clothes. Lots of potentials here, as its one ridiculous situation piled on top of each other.

And what if Blackbeard himself gets wind of this self-proclaimed Gentleman Pirate?Taika Waititi directs the first episode and then shows up as Blackbeard in the fourth episode. Hes a Blackbeard thats bored with his success, and very conscious of how he was raised in poverty, while Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby) has been cut from a much finer cloth. Blackbeard marvels at the quality of Stedes marmalade, his overcoats and books; and pretty soon, the threat of murdering Bonnet dissipates and a strange friendship between the two flourishes. My issue with the series is how its all pretty tame and outrageous in too safe a manner. Some promising plot devices like that of a woman disguised as a man on board the ship never takes off. Funny, but misses out on being hilarious.

Jolt (HBO Go) Ever since the likes of Liam Neeson and Keanu Reeves turned little action films into outright Box-Office franchises, every Hollywood studio has been out to exhume some action hero or heroine of yesteryear, and turn their reincarnation into franchise film magic. The latest to attempt this is Jolt, which stars Kate Beckinsale. After all, she carried the Underworld film installments in the past, and has been absent long enough to make this qualify as a Hollywood the Return of narrative. And Jolt takes its Action pedigree seriously. As directed by Tanya Wexler, its about this girl named Lindy who had really extreme anger management issues. So bad that at one point, as we see in the prologue, she had to be institutionalized, and turned into a Guinea pig for behavioral scientists.

We fast-forward years later, and Lindy (Kate Beckinsale) wears a crazy contraption on her body that allows her to jolt herself with some charge that helps relax her and keep her from going ballistic. Its a device that Dr. Munchin (Stanley Tucci) has to regularly tinker with and adjust. Things go South when a date that Lindy had, and actually enjoyed the company of, turns up dead. Shes off to find out who killed him and why, and exact some revenge and justice. Nice set designs and use of color palettes to enhance movement and action. But if I had given an award for non-movement, my winner would be Kates face. Not sure what was used to plump up her face and smoothen age lines, but it looks like its been Botox-ed to death, and never moves. Tries so hard to be a compelling action film, but I dont think franchise with this outing.

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STREAMING REVIEWS: The art of reviving pirates & action heroines - Manila Bulletin